Iivo Nei
Number of games in database: 626
Years covered: 1946 to 2001
Last FIDE rating: 2369
Highest rating achieved in database: 2500Overall record: +187 -149 =290 (53.0%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.

An IM (1964), he has been Estonian champion on eight occasions - 1951, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1971 and 1974. He was a second for Boris Spassky during his World Championship Match against Robert James Fischer in 1972.

eternaloptimist: <Jason Frost The best coach/second isn't always the best player, e.g. Dvoretsky was an IM.> That's definitely true. Except that Dvoretsky still IS an IM. Dvoretsky probably could have become a GM eventually, but he wanted to concentrate on being a trainer. I don't know what the case w/ IM Nei never becoming a GM is. Maybe he wasn't good enough tactically or didn't have quite enough drive. These are probably the 2 most common reasons for an IM never becoming a GM. There must have been some good reasons for Spassky choosing Nei as a second...perhaps for his knowledge of the openings, strategy? I'm not sure. Also, <myschkin> that's a cool picture of Nei & Karpov by a bust of Keres in Estonia. Thanks for the link!

Granny O Doul: This guy was once a clue/answer in the NY Times crossword (something like "Chessmaster Ivo" or "Chessmaster Nei"). Tal (especially) and Keres are fairly common crossword answers, but I can't think of many others.

As titleless player, Nei won at his first participation the prestigious Beverwijk Hoogovens 1964, joint with Keres, ahead of many elite top players, Portisch was third, Ivkov fourth, Larsen joint fiftht, Donner joint tenth (since 1968 this tournament is held at Wijk aan Zee, today billed as Tata Steel).

Nei got the IM for this really big tournament triumph at Beverwijk, but never was awarded the Grandmaster title nor the GM honorary title, in retrospective being a top-100 player according to chessmetrics rating (historical ELO by SONAS) from 1960 to 1978. Nei was best-ranked on position 21.

USSR Junior Champion in 1948 (joint with Viktor Korchnoi who won already in 1947, both born in 1931).

Iivo Nei will celebrate his 85th anniversary in coming October, high time for a picture of him, dear chessgames, and many thanks,

zydeco: There's a new interview out with Boris Spassky where he accuses Nei of spying for the Americans while part of Spassky's camp in the Fischer match. Does anybody know if there's any truth to this? The accusation is that Nei was secretly working on a book with Robert Byrne - Spassky doesn't directly say, or even really imply, that Byrne then passed on info to Fischer. Still, Spassky was clearly very pissed off about it - and is fully convinced of Nei's perfidy many years later. If it's true, it's a startling thing - a big risk for Nei to take (passing secret Soviet material to Americans); and it implies that Fischer may have had some inside information on Spassky's preparation.

diagonal: <There's a new interview out with Boris Spassky where he accuses Nei of spying for the Americans while part of Spassky's camp in the Fischer match.>

I read that interview, too. In recent years, Boris Spassky tends to tell some stories (eg. why he had to flee France), which are rather bizarre.

<I doubt that this (accusation) is true. Bobby wouldn't have trusted the Soviets anyway.>

Indeed, and why did Boris Vasilievich, living and enjoying life in France since the late 1970s and changing to the French Federation in the 1980s (at least since Linares 1983: Game Collection: Linares 1983, the relationship between Spassky and Karpov and the official USSR were rather cold), did wait more than forty years until revealing his suspicion, breaking abruptly with France and after suffering several serious health issues?

Boris Spassky will celebrate his 80th birthday next January.

Iivo Nei is 85 years today - happy birthday!

They are part of chess history, of course, Spassky as one of a few all-time-greats more than Nei: health and happiness to both players!

WorstPlayerEver: Spasski's getting old. All the time he didn't object to the story of Nei as his "physical trainer" and suddenly it's about chess.... it's a bit sad that Boris legacy has turned to: "I could have stopped the match... as the champ."

HeMateMe: It's a shame Spassky never wrote an opinionated auto bio. After Korchnoi, I can't think of a player who'd I rather see an autobiography from. Boris saw and lived it all, he must have some great stories, happy and sad. Why not tell the tale now?

HeMateMe: I have a hunch that Spassky might have liked the mini match tournaments.

Why? There is less pressure on a world champion, as the title hands off to different top players from year to year. He didn't like being world champion. That might have had something to do with the added pressure that comes from being a USSR player expected to defeat all of the best westerners, or he may have just disliked the heightened pressure, in general.

In the mini matches, you are just first among equals, and there are probably 20 different people who can win it, from year to year. It is no shame to lose the 'title' in such a tournament because there is to much randomness built into such an event.

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